Why is FastBIT important?How do I find out about service packs, new releases and updates?
NovaStor publishes a Company Newsletter, NovaNews, on an approximately semi-monthly basis. Our company newsletter is the best way to stay in touch with the company and all the latest developments, plus learn tips and techniques and more. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can multiple users schedule a backup at one time, i.e. at 11:00p?

I have upgraded my NovaBACKUP Network license, do I need to reinstall from scratch?
No, rather than reinstalling NovaBACKUP Network, use the update license option from the install menu to upgrade NovaBACKUP Network. _____________________________________________________________________________

Should I know anything special about installing NovaBACKUP Network on a Linux Redhat 5 computer?
The following description will step you through the process of getting your Redhat system up and going in no time: 1. Step:
Install by running direct file ./nnlincin from your media
2. Step:
Copy libstdc++.so.5 from a RedHat Enterprise 4 installation over onto /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 on the RedHat Enterprise 5 machine.
3. Step:
If you need the XWindow interface then copy /usr/X11R6/lib/libXft.so.1.1 from a Redhat Enterprise 4 installation onto the same folder on the RedHat 5 machine, if the directory does not yet exist then create it, and make a symbolic link from this file to libXft.so.1 and place this link into the /usr/local/novastor/NovaBACKUP Network/v10.00-sp3a/lin/x86 folder or /usr/local/novastor/NovaBACKUP Network/v11.00/lin/x86 folder if you are using NovaBACKUP Network 11. _____________________________________________________________________________

Does NovaBACKUP Network support differential SCSI tape drives and host adapter?
Yes, it does. _____________________________________________________________________________

Why can't NovaBACKUP Network see all the other servers and workstations on my network?
NovaBACKUP Network may not be able to see other computers or servers on the network because NovaBACKUP Network must be installed on every machine on the network that needs to be backed up. Try installing the software on each computer that access is needed. Also, you may want to check the basic networking system and connections to make sure they are functioning correctly. _____________________________________________________________________________

Does NovaBACKUP Network support media rotation?
Media rotation is supported via a scheduling option. You make the job selections as you normally would. When you want to schedule the job, select one of the predefined, or custom, rotation schedules on the scheduling tab. _____________________________________________________________________________

Does NovaBACKUP Network support multiple devices?
On the job options tab, select multiple devices in the device list box. When multiple devices are selected, NovaBACKUP Network will use all devices available concurrently. If the media in a device becomes full, any streams being written to that device will automatically be redistributed to other devices. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I restore data to a different file name?
When the file, directory or volume to rename is selected, select the properties tool bar button or use the right mouse button for the context menu and select context. The properties sheet of the selected object is displayed. On the general tab, type in the new name and press Ok. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I restore data to another location?
To restore data to another location, within the restore job selections tab, click on the directory or file you want restored to a different location and hold the mouse button down. Drag the object to the new target location. To use the keyboard, use Control-C to copy the object and Control-V to move the object to its new location.
If the target directory is not displayed since it has not been backed up, use the right mouse button on the object, select move, A dialog box will appear with a browse button. Select browse to find the target directory. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I restore all the files from a single session?
On the restore selection tab, select the file, directory or volume to restore. Press the select button on the tool bar. The instance dialog box is displayed. Select the date of the instance you want restored. All children having the same instance will also be selected. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I determine which files are on a tape?
Select reports from the file menu. For the report type, select the media detail report. _____________________________________________________________________________

What if my device is not supported?
Most devices have common characteristics. There are only a few manufacturers of tape devices, but many OEMs buy the drives and repackage them into their own subsystems. Some of these OEMs change the SCSI inquiry string so that the device is not recognized by NovaBACKUP Network. Please contact NovaStor Support, to determine how to add the device to the list of supported devices. _____________________________________________________________________________

If I install NovaBACKUP Network using IPX as the protocol, and then decide to change to a TCP/IP connection, do I have to uninstall and re-install?
No. There is a work around and that is:
(1) Stop the NovaBACKUP Network Service (2) Edit the file called NNCFG.INI in the NovaBACKUP Network Subdirectory. There is a section titled "General software bus configuration" and one of the lines states "protocol=ipx". Change that to "protocol=tcp" (3) Save the changes (4) Restart the service _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I allow users to access NovaBACKUP Network?
The security features within NovaBACKUP Network allow shared access to resources like devices, loaders and media. You can setup the security system so users can make their own backups to shared devices without interfering with the main system backups. Also, the administrator can be in charge of the backups, but grant sufficient security rights so that users may restore their own data. _____________________________________________________________________________

Do I have to login to NovaBACKUP Network to run a scheduled job?
No. NovaBACKUP Network will run scheduled jobs as long as it is loaded. You can exit to the login dialog box, or if running as a service, exit the NovaBACKUP Network interface completely, the jobs will still be run. Unlike NovaBACKUP Network 4 and 5, scheduled jobs will be run regardless of where in NovaBACKUP Network you are currently working.
One exception to this is if the job is locked. The job is locked when the properties of the job are being edited. If a job is scheduled to run and the job is being edited by a user, the job will automatically be rescheduled in 15 minutes. _____________________________________________________________________________

I started NovaBACKUP Network but my jobs do not run right away. Is there anything wrong?
After first starting NovaBACKUP Network, no scheduled jobs will be executed for 5 minutes. This allows enough time to edit any job schedules or to remove jobs from the queue before they start running. _____________________________________________________________________________

How can I determine which files were not backed up?
Edit the properties of a job, and select the logs tab. Select the date of the backup you want to check. Notepad or WordPad are used to view the job log so you can save the log to a file if you want. Note that you only get a copy of the log. If you edit the log, the main log on the storage manager will still be available. You can also have NovaBACKUP Network print the log directly. _____________________________________________________________________________

When restoring, I get many alerts. What is wrong?
When NovaBACKUP Network performs a restore, if you select many devices or leave the device selection in the restore options tab at Network, NovaBACKUP Network will attempt to fulfill the restore job with all the devices listed or found. If a device does not contain media, or the device contains the wrong media, an alert is sent. This alert is to inform you to put the desired media into the device.
For example, you are restoring from a single media but list 4 devices. If the target media is in the third device listed, NovaBACKUP Network will issue 2 alerts for the first two devices. These alerts can be ignored.
In addition, you do not have to insert the requested media into the device. To fulfill the request, any media required in the job can be placed in the device. NovaBACKUP Network will then use the media that you actually did put into the device.
To stop this behavior, select a single device or only the devices you actually intend to use. _____________________________________________________________________________

Does NovaBACKUP Network support device groups?
NovaBACKUP Network supports device groups via the parent folders. You can select a particular device, all devices on a controller, all devices on a machine or all devices on the network. _____________________________________________________________________________

Does NovaBACKUP Network support media groups?
You can organize your media into media groups via the media folders. To move media in or out of a media group, simply drag the media to a different media location. When selecting target media for backup, select the folder containing the media in the backup options tab. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I print the reports or logs under NetWare?
You can print to any local print queue under NetWare. The queue must be local, but the printer does not need to be local. By configuring a remote print server to service the local queue, the print job can be routed to a remote printer.
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How do I go about restoring a Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 database?
The Microsoft Exchange Server connector for NovaBACKUP Network lets you work with storage groups instead of individual information stores. Each storage group is identified as a single object, which you can back up and restore. In case of any questions please contact our NovaStor Support Team. _____________________________________________________________________________

During verify or restore, I get a stream sync error. What is wrong?
Usually a bad tape or dirty heads on the tape drive causes this. Try cleaning the tape drive. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I use a tape drive located on other workstations?
Yes, but the NovaBACKUP Network administrator or a user with access control rights to the tape drive must grant you rights to use it. Rights can be granted to either read from the device, write to the device or both. _____________________________________________________________________________

When I install, I do not see the storage manager I want to connect with.
This can be caused by several problems:
Make sure the storage manager is connected to the network and NovaBACKUP Network is loaded.
If you are using IPX, make sure your Windows workstation does not use auto frame detection. If you are using Windows NT, do not assign an internal network number unless you have more than one network card or are acting as a router between multiple frame types.
If you are using IP, the storage manager may not be residing on your physical subnet. NovaBACKUP Network can only find locally connected storage managers automatically. You must enter the network address or host name to see storage managers that do not reside on your subnet.
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How do I replace a tape in a rotation group?
NovaBACKUP Network automatically creates a series of folders and media used with rotation. These folders control the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tapes. To remove a tape if it is physically damaged, or because it is lost, delete the media from the set. NovaBACKUP Network will automatically format a new one when required.
To move a tape to an offsite location, create a folder in your home folder. Give it a name like "Offsite Media". Drag the media to this folder. If the tape is required by NovaBACKUP Network during the processing of a rotation job, it will automatically create a new tape to replace the tape moved to offsite storage. _____________________________________________________________________________

How do I choose my storage manager database location?
The location of the storage manager database can be very important. On larger systems, to minimize the time required to perform disaster recovery, we recommend the storage manager be located on a dedicated server. This server performs no operations except the storage management processing. Place the devices on the servers to be backed up. If the storage manager server fails, no data is lost and recovery of the server can proceed in a non-critical manner. If any other server fails, recovery can be quickly performed since the storage server is still operational.
On smaller systems, it is acceptable to place the storage manager on the same server as the devices. Recovery does not take much time since the databases are smaller. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can you give me a rough estimate of what the database zone limitation is?
This is a very tough question to answer, as there is really no limit. However, we can answer that by giving you a practical limit. We suggest no more than 1 Million files in a database zone. In reality, from what we have seen, about 4 servers. However - users may have more than 1 million files and more than 4 servers in one database zone. If that is the case, the product will continue to function. If slowness appears (of server, of backups, of restore, of importing media), that is a good sign you should start thinking about having another zone. _____________________________________________________________________________

When recovering from a storage manager failure, do I get all NovaBACKUP Network information back?
Most of the database is restored when selecting to restore the storage manager database. The only thing that will not be restored is the complete log of the job that was running when backing the database up. The reason for this is that the log is not written until after the job has completed. The job is not completed until the database is backed up to tape. _____________________________________________________________________________

What controllers are supported?
NovaBACKUP Network only supports ASPI controllers. You must have an ASPI compatible controller and the drivers for the controller loaded for NovaBACKUP Network to access the device. _____________________________________________________________________________

What is the advantage of registering the software?
When you register NovaBACKUP Network, you will receive notifications of new versions being released. If you register an internet email address, you will receive these notifications via email. In addition, if any critical bugs are found, you will be notified and appropriate patches will be available from our web site. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I share the controller between my hard disk and tape drive?
You can share between the two, but your performance will be better if the tape drive is on its own controller. The SCSI bus has a limited amount of data that can be transferred. For high-speed devices, the SCSI bus can usually be kept at its transfer capacity. If you do connect the tape device to the same bus, the data transfer rate from the disk is essentially cut in half as well as the tape transfer rate. This is due to the fact that data must be read from the disk into memory, formatted and written back out to the bus to the tape device.
For low speed devices, such as DDS-1 DAT, lower capacity QIC, and Travan, this will not cause a problem. For high-speed devices like the Exabyte Mammoth or the Quantum DLT, this can cause a serious bottleneck.
Also, the high-speed tape drives mentioned above should be connected to Ultra fast, wide SCSI controller. Controllers like the Adaptec 1542 cannot transfer data fast enough to keep the tape device streaming.
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Can I restore NT files to NetWare?
Yes, but you must deselect the "native stream format" from the Advanced options button on the backup options tab. This causes data to be written to tape in a generic format that NetWare can understand. _____________________________________________________________________________

Can I restore NetWare files to NT?
Yes, but you must deselect the same option as above. This causes data to be decompressed before backup since NT does not understand NetWare compression. _____________________________________________________________________________

Are there any plans to support ATAPI/IDE tape drives on Novell Products?
Not at this time. _____________________________________________________________________________

Are there any plans to support Lantastic?
If your system is running NETBIOS, NovaBACKUP Network will not work. _____________________________________________________________________________

Are there any plans for a version of NovaBACKUP Network to allow the tape drive and storage zone to be on a server and control from a workstation?
That function is already available in the NovaBACKUP Network UNL versions. For upgrade pricing, please select "Upgrade" in the "More Buying Options" section above. _____________________________________________________________________________

Does NovaBACKUP Network backup files as compressed?
NovaBACKUP Network will copy files to tape in compressed format without decompressing them first. This significantly enhances the speed of the backup. _____________________________________________________________________________

Does the Open File Manager work with software packages other than NovaBACKUP Network?
Yes. The Open File Manager works with NovaBACKUP Network and NovaBACKUP Network-WEB. _____________________________________________________________________________

The ability to automatically run a job before and after a backup job would be very useful (to make sure users are out of certain applications and remove useless temporary files). What Do I do?
Take a look at the Command tab on the machine object. Whenever any files on a machine are to be backed up, you can associate an entry/exit command with the particular machine. _____________________________________________________________________________

When a scheduled job misses a step and the job is run manually, the tape rotation is out of sync. There should be a way to manually set the next tape in a rotation and have it stick. Will this be addressed in the next release?
We are adding the "Next Tape Set" number, which you can adjust at any time to the scheduling screens. Currently, this field is an internally tracked value for each of the event types (D, W, M, Y) and cannot be seen/modified by the user.
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The email notification should have a date sent field. Our Netware SMTP agent isn't smart enough to know to add this if it is missing. This was causing some of our users grief. We have been able to work around this by routing messages through our email gat
We are currently revamping Email support for the next version. This will probably be added at that time. What we are doing is adding support for PCS email (VERY short and to the point email messages) along with "audit" email messages. The audit messages can be setup so that when a users hard disk or directory is backed up, they can be sent a message saying the action taken.
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Where does NovaBACKUP Network show me the barcode number it has saved in its database? If I have a 100 tapes stored off site with only barcode labels how will I tell by looking in NovaBACKUP Network's database which one to retrieve?
To see the barcode information, run NovaBACKUP Network, click on Media Tab, right click on the media, and select properties. Click on Media Control, and you'll find the barcode information in the "Media volume tag" field.
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When I back up a file over about 2 GB in size, NovaBACKUP Network reports the size of the file as much smaller than it really is in the file selection screen. Will the entire file be backed up properly?
Yes. Even very large files (7+ GB) do get backed up properly by NovaBACKUP Network, even though the file selection screen reports the size of such files as substantially smaller than they actually are. You can confirm that the file was properly backed up in its entirety by checking the properties of the media. The size of the data on the tape will properly reflect the actual size of the backup.
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If I have 2 nodes in my cluster, do I need to install NovaBACKUP Network Cluster Plug-In on both servers or just one?
Yes, the NovaBACKUP Network Cluster Plug-In must be installed on each of the nodes. One license key is good for up to two nodes. _____________________________________________________________________________

I found a bug in NovaBACKUP Network. What do I do now?
The best way to report a bug is to send email to support@novastor.com or fill out the Support Form. Provide as much information as possible about the bug. Information that is necessary to reproduce problem, such as keystrokes used, exactly what you were attempting to do, what NovaBACKUP Network did. The more information you provide about the bug, the better the chance we have at reproducing the bug and correcting the problem.
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How do I obtain technical support?
Your first line of defense is through the reseller or distributor. They know the most about your hardware and configuration and can probably answer your question. If they cannot, you may either fill out the Support Form or you can contact us directly at support@novastor.com or fill out the Support Form. _____________________________________________________________________________